BEIRUT, Lebanon
Lebanese state media said Friday that separate Israeli air strikes killed three journalists in eastern Lebanon and flattened buildings in southern suburbs of Beirut.
“Our correspondent in Zahle
reported the death of three journalists in an Israeli raid on Hasbaya,”
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said, adding that Israeli
military planes struck at 3:30 am (0030 GMT) near the Syrian border.
Local media reported that the
air raid hit a hotel in Hasbaya, around 50 kilometers south of the Lebanese
capital.
Separately, in Beirut’s
southern Choueifat Al-Amrousieh area, Israeli warplanes “destroyed two
buildings and ignited a large fire, and black smoke covered the area,”
according to NNA.
“The raid that targeted the
Saint Therese area also caused the collapse of two buildings near the
Constitutional Council.”
The NNA report of the strikes
on Beirut’s south on Thursday came about half an hour after Israel issued
evacuation warnings for the Hezbollah bastion following intense assaults the
night before.
“You are located near
facilities and sites belonging to Hezbollah, which the Israeli Defense Forces
will be targeting in the near future,” said the Israeli army’s Arabic-language
spokesman Avichay Adraee in a post on X that included maps of the locations.
AFPTV footage showed plumes of
smoke rising from Beirut’s south following the strikes and AFP correspondents
in the capital heard loud bangs.
“Israeli warplanes launched a
new strike a short while ago on the Choueifat” area of south Beirut, NNA said,
adding later that Haret Hreik and Hadath were also targeted.
On Wednesday evening, Israeli
strikes levelled six buildings in south Beirut, state media and AFP footage
showed, with Israel’s army saying it had hit Hezbollah weapons production
facilities “under and inside civilian buildings.”
On September 23, Israel
launched an intense air campaign in Lebanon and later announced ground
incursions, following a year of limited cross-border clashes with Iran-backed
Hezbollah over the Gaza war.
Since then, Israeli strikes in
Lebanon have killed at least 1,580 people, according to an AFP tally of
Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher
due to gaps in the data.
The Committee to Protect
Journalists has documented at least 128 journalists and media workers killed in
Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began in
October 2023.
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